Infinity
by angellus08
Summary: Klaus/Caroline/Elijah. set after 3x21. And she wants to be alone, all alone... as long as he keeps finding her when she needs him the most. And he always does.


_A/N- I know I know... why a new story? But this just came out of me in like 1 hour of crazy writing, but I don't like it much so I'm confused. If I continue, this will be only a two-shot and I already kind of have an idea for the next part so... REVIEW tc..._

_This takes place after 3x21 (ugly sobbing) and it is Klaroline and Carlijah both. The main theme of the story is to create suspense of who '_HE_' is... I hope I haven't failed but of course if I continue in the next and final chapter you will find out who he is._

_I'm going out of town for 3-4 days so if I continue it will after that..._

* * *

**I was listening to The Infinity by The XX while writing this hence...**

* * *

**Infinity**

* * *

**Chapte****r 1**

* * *

She leaves, just like she had always known she would leave one day. Just like everyone had always known she would leave one day.

Caroline Forbes had always been like a bird; free, beautiful, carefree; always on the move; always on the lookout for more. But now she was also immortal, she had to look for _more_ somewhere else, where her eternal seventeen status wouldn't be visible.

Freedom is all she wants, after years of repression and submission; she wants to be free... just Caroline.

No strings, no commitments, no promises... no drama. Just live for the first time in her life, coz now all she has left is to live the way she wants.

And she wants to be alone, all alone... as long as he keeps finding her when she needs him the most.

And he always does.

* * *

The last night of her life in Mystic Falls is spent – on Elena's insistence – just with her girlfriends. It's like flashback night, they sleep in the same bed (she's pretty sure Damon sneaks into her house in the middle of the night to take a picture of her cuddling into Elena as Bonnie spoons her) they eat junk food, bitch about Allison Connelly, gossip about Bonnie and the new guy and take turns making Elena blush.

It's the last night of her human life... from now on she is neither human nor vampire.

She is simply eternal.

Infinite.

And infinity is all she has to look forward to.

They talk about the places she should go to, the things she should do.

Europe, Africa, Asia even Antarctica is possible for her now. She wants to do them all and they make her promise to send postcards from every new place. She pinky promises like 8 year old Caroline would.

But they're all pretending; she knows she won't send them and they know they want them. After this night she will never speak to or of them again.

She needs to find a life for Caroline the eternal now and she's going to start in Barranquilla, Colombia.

She decides to avoid only three places – Paris, Rome and Tokyo.

* * *

Colombia is colorful and loving and heartbreaking. She loses herself in the _Carnaval de Barranquilla_, the three months it had taken her to come to the decision to leave were enough to learn Spanish and here she isn't Caroline, she's _Carolina_.

And she loves it.

She drinks so much coffee she's sure one can taste it in her blood or maybe it's from all the Colombian blood she's been drinking – straight from the tap.

She's a vampire, she needs to know how to fresh feed... and sometimes she kills, but she accepts it. She is who she is and she can't be changed.

She spends one month in Colombia and just as she predicted the only person to call her in that time is Stefan. Stefan; she knew would be the only one who would worry about her, alone in some foreign country.

After she reassures him that she's fine she switches her cell off, she doesn't want to give in to the need to call him again.

She needs to be alone.

She's in Bogota awaiting her flight to Santiago when he doesn't find her but watches over her, from a distance, a mix of a frown and a smile on his face as he watches her try to let down some poor lad attempting to hit on her.

She hears that noise; the one that sets her teeth on edge and makes her blood come alive when she knees the persistent _hombre_ in the groin. She whirls around, her eyes searching frantically but when she boards the flight she hasn't seen him.

For the first time since Mystic Falls, she's disappointed.

* * *

Santiago is beautiful and the Chilean people are far too kind and her Spanish comes in use again. She wants to see the Volcanoes, like stand right on top of them and they stare at her incredulously, only seeing the young impressionable blonde not the monster behind that smile.

South Chile with its extensive unoccupied land and rough terrain is her favorite, she feels free here, like a bird. She's in Chile for two weeks and she finally switches her cell phone on and replies to Stefan's 10 frantic messages.

Then she disconnects herself again, she doesn't need any temptation to pull her back.

She's in the local market negotiating with the fruit lady in rapid Spanish as the other vendors watch in amusement at the American Blonde fighting for what to her was worth about 10 cents. But she does it for the feel of power and the feel of normal.

If she tried really hard she could pretend to be a frustrated woman working 12 hours a day and then having to go back home to a whiny and hungry husband, but she's not.

She's alone just as she wants to be.

She smells him this time and gasps out loud instantly, dropping her shopping bag and shoving all the notes in her hand into the yelling woman's, all of 50 dollars, probably worth her entire store. But she doesn't care; neither for her lost money nor for her purchased item lying on the floor of the market as she sprints out the entrance searching wildly for that familiar face to that familiar smell.

That day she leaves Chile, and she thinks of the last time she saw him.

He found her on top of _him, _her hands on his chest, his claiming her open breasts and her face the rapture of ecstasy. That's the last image of herself she gave him and it haunts her sleep.

* * *

If she thought Barranquilla was colorful then it was because she hadn't seen Rio yet. She flits through the streets during the day and crowds the clubs at night.

He finds her for real this time; holding onto the almost lifeless body of a man as she drinks out of him, the body of his girlfriend by her feet.

"At what do you draw the limit?" his accent filled voice creeps into her ear and she retracts her fangs from the boy and turns around slowly.

Just as she remembered, not a day older, not a day younger. Eternal just like her.

She licks the blood off her fingers as he waves to the bodies on the floor.

"Do you permit yourself a number or such?" he inquires and the excitement she had initially felt fades into anger.

"I don't answer to you" she hisses at him and he smiles again.

"I know sweetheart, you answer to yourself. So again I ask, where do _you_ draw your limit?"

She stares at him a long time, in some dingy alley in Rio. He's always known her the best, just _how_ she doesn't seem to understand. He knows the truth behind her smiles and laughs and looks, sometimes even when she doesn't know them.

He just stuffs his hands in his pant pockets, leaning against the brick wall as he waits for her to respond.

"5" she says meekly mirroring his actions on the opposite wall.

In an instant he's standing in her face, his hand caressing her cheek and she closes her eyes enjoying the softness of his graze. She feels his hot breath on her neck as he simply places his mouth on the spot he knows drives her crazy and softly murmurs against her skin "I always did tell you control is the trick to this life"

She only nods as she longs to touch him, but she won't because she knows he's going to leave soon, but not before delivering a last blow.

Nipping her ear lobe teasingly he whispers "My brother says _Hello_"

And then he's gone and she's left not with disappointment but with a reminder of why she deserves this.

She practically swims out of Rio that night.

* * *

For another 4 months she explores the rest of South America and he leaves her alone. No one calls her, not even Stefan. But now she needs some connection so she calls the only person who's always been there for her.

"I shouldn't be talking to you Caroline" Matt says as he leaves the restaurant and hurries into the street outside.

"Why not?" she asks absent-mindedly, picking at her nails.

"I'm with Elena now" Matt reminds her "We've been together for almost a year... she wouldn't want me talking to you"

"Do you always do as she says?" she snaps back angrily, feeling the dread fill her up.

"My life is with Elena now; I don't want to cause problems by talking to my ex-girlfriend" he tries to explain "Our lives are no longer the same Caroline, we're not what we used to be"

She controls her tears long enough to retort back to him "I hope you know she only chose you are coz you're human, she doesn't love you"

She snaps the phone close and crawls up on her bed, for the first time she didn't want to be alone. She also wants to be right, but she's not. She knows Elena loves Matt and that Matt loves Elena, but it hurts too much to accept it.

She doesn't panic when she hears the door to her hotel room creak open, because she _feels_ him. Her tears are long dried, but the wound is wide open.

He becomes her band-aid as he crawls into her bed and takes her into his arms, and she melts into him, her back fitting perfectly to his chest and her hands hold onto his tightly, brining him closer needing to feel closer because again she knows he'll be gone the next morning.

She's wrong; he leaves in the middle of the night when he thinks she's fallen off to sleep. But she never sleeps, only works manically to hold onto the feel of his embrace for as long as she can.

She feels alone again, the kind of alone she had never wanted.

She leaves for Amsterdam immediately.

* * *

Three months later she finds Stefan in some club in Barcelona trying in vain to communicate with the bartender. She giggles gleefully as she butts into his shoulder and looks at the bartender and yaps away instantly.

"Hola Leti, que tal? Quiero una bellini y una cerveza Americano para el" she winks at the woman she's come to befriend in her one month here and turns to smile victoriously towards a frowning Salvatore.

"Honestly, after 175 or so years you can't learn Spanish?" she clicks her tongue dramatically and he rolls his eyes before capturing her into his strong arms, she practically becomes invisible as he wraps around her.

"I missed you Care" he beams ruffling her hair like she's a child "It's been a long time"

"More than a year" she comments and his head tilts to look at her sadly, as if not wanting that sadness to turn to pity she slaps him on the arm hard "You stopped calling me" she chides

"You made it clear you wanted to be alone" he defends and she sighs as she realizes he's right. And as if Stefan has some power over her no one has ever had before she blurts the truth to him.

"I wanted to be alone, that doesn't mean I wanted to be left alone" she says gloomily tipping her drink back.

He got that sad look on his face again as he butt out "So which one of them made you leave?"

She bit her tongue forcefully to stop herself from retorting back in like. She would very much like to know how it felt when Elena chose Matt over both the brothers.

"None of your business" she snips ferociously and moves to leave but he grabs her by the hand and pulls her to him, his face mere inches from her face and she can see the pleading in his eyes.

He's just as lonely as she is.

"I'm sorry" he says sincerely "It's not my place, to make it up I'll give you one dance"

Instantly her mind runs into the past when she had tried to make _him_ dance with her and he had looked around at the club and wrinkled his nose and declared that this wasn't dancing, this was dry humping.

She shakes her head to rid her of the memories as she smiles and lets Stefan take her to the dance floor. It's a riot of bodies and sweat and other things and she lets loose for the first time since she left, she feels safe. No matter the turmoil in her head and heart Stefan will always be safe for her, so when he turns her around and pushes her hips closer to his she doesn't protest, she likes the feel of his hands on her lower abdomen and his face in her neck.

She doesn't even protest when he asks her to come back to his hotel with him, because the 16 year old Caroline is bursting in glee inside of her. The older Caroline just wanted to feel something, feel someone who wouldn't leave immediately.

His room, her clothes and his clothes all go past her in a blur as she falls on his bed and he falls on her. The little crush she had harbored for him died a long time back, this right here is not love or feelings, it's simply lust and want and she gives in. Because she is not careful Caroline anymore she is carefree Caroline, if only she had given in before.

The room is filled only with the sound of her pants and his groans and for the first time since she left she realizes that she can't run from home, their eternal status makes it impossible for them to run from anything, one day it will find them.

So she realizes what she's doing right at the moment Stefan delves inside her but she bites her lips, she'll just enjoy this moment right here and he feels perfect.

She cries, literally cries when he bends down and whispers into the side of her face the words she never wanted to hear or think of.

_Elena_.

Stefan freezes in his moments as he realizes what he's done... said.

Now the only sounds in the room are of her sobs as she pushes him off her and collects her clothes off the floor barely able to see through the cover of her tears. Steadily ignoring his cries of apology and 'I'm sorry Caroline' 'Please don't leave', she exits his room and runs to the elevator breaking down on the floor as soon as she's inside.

It won't leave her, her past and it won't stop haunting her present and future. The 16 and 18 year old Caroline in her are devastated as she stays in her curled up position inside the elevator, crying herself into oblivion.

And that's how he finds her.

She wakes up in some hotel room and remembers only flashes of last night, of being wrapped up in his arms as he carried her out the elevator. And now he's gone just like she knew he would be, but she can still smell him in the room and the bed sheets are crinkled from his body shape and she runs her hands over them, trying to feel him.

She leaves Barcelona within the next hour and heads to Lisbon.

* * *

She remembers the last time he had picked up her sobbing crying frame and healed her back to sanity.

_***Flashback***_

_She doesn't know why she's here, she knows she shouldn't be. This isn't her house; this house belongs to the monsters, the enemy, and the ones she's supposed to hate. But she doesn't hate all of them; oh no she could never hate that one person she should with all her life. _

_But now whatever she feels or doesn't feel doesn't matter, which leads her to creep up the stairs of the mansion and let herself in his room and spread like a eagle over his bed, inhaling his scent, feeling his remnants on the sheets._

_Pretending always pretending. _

_And then she breaks down because it's all too much, there's a tug of war within her and it's tearing her apart. _

_And that's how he finds her. _

_A pained look in his eyes he lifts her off the bed and out the room and she's too busy sobbing to protest. And when he lays her down on his bed he entertains himself with twirling her curls in his fingers as he lets her cry her heart out. _

_Eventually once she stops he leans in, the serious look back on his face and her eyes are wide in slight fear and anticipation "You're far too young to hurt over something this trivial, there's much more pain to come sweetheart" _

_She doesn't understand what he means and her face displays that perfectly so he lowers down even further, his breath on her face he tilts his head and brushes the hair off her forehead and says "I'll help you" _

_She thinks of the last time she had been vulnerable, lying in bed with an original educating her and hopes that this time over it leads to fewer tears._

**_*Flashback end*_**

* * *

She's strolling through the Mystros beach in Greece when she hears his familiar laugh and the hairs on the back of her neck stand up instantly recognizing him.

She hasn't seen him in over a year, but she's thought of him every day.

She turns around when she feels him near her and envelops him in a bear hug.

Despite everything, the drama, the betrayal... the brother's situation.

She's missed him, and she's happy to see him.

The original that started everything.

* * *

_A/N - So what do you think? Any guesses on who He is?_


End file.
